Love Remembers

For those who love hard.

***

Edited by Sinclair Sexsmith

***

Janice rocked in her favorite porch chair, the southern wind blowing her gray locks free from under her hat and pressing warm breath over her sun-kissed skin.

“Mama?”

Kendra’s face was careful when she handed over the photo album. Although her mother had never spoken on why it remained untouched on the study bookshelf, Kendra understood the book was a precious thing.

“You’ve got me worried, Mama.”

Janice chuckled and exchanged the newspaper in her lap for the album, running her thumb along the dusty spine. “You’ve got nothing to be worried about, sugar. There’s just something I yearn for.”

“What’s in there?”

Janice opened the book and flipped to the first page. “Living,” she sighed.

The first image presented a much younger version of herself holding a dark-skinned beauty around the waist, Janice’s chin resting upon a bare shoulder, her face half obscured by her companion’s naturally untamed hair. The beach had been packed with bodies evading the heat on the gentle ocean shoreline that day. She still remembered the humid weight of the air and the sweet smell of Annette’s skin.

Kendra turned her attention to the paper in her hands. “That looks just like this woman here in the paper, Mama.”

Janice hummed an affirmation while she glanced at her two grandbabies chasing one another in the garden. Her heart held no regrets for loving Kendra’s father, having his children, or caring for her husband until...